in rhetoric, a kind of hyperbole, whereby things are augmented or amplified, by saying more than the truth, either as to good or bad.

in painting, a method by which the artist, in representing things, changes them too much, or makes them too strong, either in respect of the design or colouring. It differs from caricaturing, in that the latter perverts or gives a turn to the features of a face, &c., which they had not; whereas exaggeration only heightens or improves what they had.